The Power of “Thank you”: There’s an app for that
Leveraging the Foursquare API, We First, a company that calls itself “Social Branding Consulting Firm” released an app for the iPhone that allows people to thank service staff found at the places where, previously, you would have just checked in. The idea is very simple and I find it very interesting. Sure, you can just actually say “Thank you!” but for service professionals it’s probably nice to have something “on record.” In fact, it could help employers incentivize their staff. A virtual “Employee of the month” program, if you will.
It begs the question: can it ultimately change how customer service improves? I think it potentially could. Making Thank Yous social may lead to new behaviors, similar to existing recommendation apps, but adding a more human element to the whole thing. After all, when we recommend a venue, do we just recommend, say the food, or also the service? I suppose many times in fact we recommend the service and friendliness and atmosphere created by employees more than the food.
After years of digital technologies just enabling people to be more and more in control of their purchase decisions (before and after), essentially arming them for the conflict and battle with a service or sales person, this kind of idea could create a platform for human interactions that is about valuing experiences, and creating incentives for those whose job it is to create those experiences for customers.
Check it out here.
On another note:Kudos to a firm that calls itself “consulting firm” to actually create a real experience for the social space, as opposed to just analyzing and talking about the social space.
Via Jake Setlak
